United Airlines CEO, Oscar Munoz, Promises Changes at the Airline

United Airlines CEO, Oscar Munoz, Promises Changes at the Airline

Since 69 year old Dr. David Dao was dragged from a flight in Chicago, United Airlines has put out a number of statements. First, Oscar Munoz, its CEO, issued a statement of support for the United Airlines employees. Next, he shifted to promising an investigation into what happened. Now, the embattled CEO is promising that the airlines will never again use law enforcement to pull an uncooperative passenger from a flight.

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Munoz promises to never use law enforcement in this kind of situation.

Munoz told Good Morning America, “This will never happen again. We are not going to put a law enforcement official onto a plane to take them off … to remove a booked, paid, seated passenger. We can’t do that.” The CEO added that he felt “shame” when he saw the video that had been taken by other passengers on that flight. He added, “I think my reaction to most issues is to get the facts and circumstances. My initial words fell short of truly expressing the shame.”

“They all have an incredible amount of common sense, and this issue could have been solved by that. This is on me. I have to fix that, and I think that’s something we can do,” Munoz said.

The Chicago Department of Aviation also responds to the incident.

The law enforcement agency that removed Dao from the plane was not the Chicago Police Department but was the Chicago Department of Aviation. They have said that the way this passenger was treated was not in accordance with normal procedure. A spokesperson said this week, “The aviation security officer in question is on paid administrative duty, pending an investigation.”

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This has been very costly for United Airlines.

The incident has prompted boycotts and protests of the airline. By some estimates, United Airlines is losing as much as $1 billion a day as a result of their actions in this instance.